Geoff

The Insight masterclass with Greg Kunde last week excited me still further to hear him in the part, not long now!

In case people haven’t seen this review, here is Fiona Maddocks in today’s Observer: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/10/il-trovatore-royal-opera-house-adele-thomas-review-the-planets-philharmonia-emilia-holving-bold-tendencies-dennis-gnasher-unleashed-at-the-orchestra-bbc-concert-orchestra-jackson-colin-currie-gavin-higgins-beano-concerto

Alastair Macaulay published these thoughts today: https://slippedisc.com/2023/06/alastair-macaulay-covent-garden-has-gone-off-classical-track/

For those for whom this is a really Important issue, there are various hands-free products on the market, which fit to your head. They are high-spec but, warning, do not come cheap. However they sometimes turn up secondhand.

Yes! The ticket page is slightly clearer but there seem to be two start times for different things, 6.30pm and 8pm:- https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5741830

Maybe people in the area would like to know about this: http://www.missiontheatre.co.uk/whats-on/2023/6/5/bluffing-your-way-in-ballet If you do go and see this, it would be great to see a review posted on here!

Reverting to this thread to draw attention to a couple of recent reactions in the (very long and sometimes rambling) Sleeping Beauty discussion. These comments on Osipova seem worth highlighting. Read from here: https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/27512-rb-sleeping-beauty-mayjune-2023/?do=findComment&comment=406238

Can anyone clarify if the confused / confusing rights situation with the Ashton repertoire is somehow connected? Could it be that, rather like Onegin, there are restrictions placed by some rights owners when it comes to recordings?

Happily not tonight! Tonight, as above, he’s in the ROH pit.

👍

Some of the credit for last night’s success goes to conductor Jonathan Lo for pushing the music faster, so that it began to approach tempi envisioned by Tchaikovsky and Petipa (they, as can’t be pointed out often enough, set down metronome markings during the rehearsal period of the first production so there is actually no excuse for the Royal Ballet’s unfortunate drift to the funereal over recent decades) Speed helps this magnificent ballet: it isn’t “boring” (despite what some say) when danced as intended. Although there were still a few modern music-pose-music moments (stopping to “make a picture” rather than dancing through) Naghdi was in general wonderfully lively, a spirit for example captured on film by Fonteyn. YouTube has plenty of examples of Fonteyn to choose from for those who want to explore (incidentally the colour footage has the added bonus of showing a lovely Act One tutu, two-tone with a pink underskirt, if that’s the right description). Naghdi’s solo in the Vision scene was as perfect a melding of dance and music as one can hope to see: breathtaking, and again well done also to the conductor. A tiny moment to treasure in the last act was Naghdi’s start to the final PDD, slipping up en pointe exactly in time to the music, as if cheekily to say, here I am, take me! Someone near me gasped, it was so funny, so perfectly in the moment. Last night climaxed with a gold glitter drop, into the auditorium as well as on stage. Although this was presumably in honour of the coronation, I hope they keep on doing it. For me it gave something of the flavour of the (normally now omitted in modern productions) final scene, the apotheosis, when Aurora and her prince become gods. All in all a really wonderful, memorable, evening.

This is a marvellously entertaining website with much to interest the informed as well as the casual reader (including a lot of visual material which is quite hard to obtain elsewhere). However I think it would only be fair to add a gentle warning: academics have murmured about it somewhat. The primary author is to be encouraged: she is doing very well with this project (although it is not as complete as one might think when first coming across it) However she came in for a fair amount of criticism a couple of years ago (including from me and including on this forum) for her involvement with a less than scholarly book, a novel sold as history, if I remember the row on Amazon about it. So care is advised.

The problem for me was more the grey conducting and playing (with the usual sloppiness by the ROH band). I know it is probably rather out of place to criticise St Antonio this final season, but after that night I determined never to see another Aida. Then my resolve broke and I got a last minute return for the sold out all-stars performance in Vienna (with not only she who must not be mentioned but other world beaters as well) and was transformed. The Vienna orchestra - masterfully conducted by Nicola Luisotti - found music I never knew that score contained, so I will now be going back to Aida again.

Just in case anyone has not yet seen the press release, here it is to download: https://www.balletcoforum.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=3057&key=b22e9ec13174e9ab3ecd1b44adfdfb65

Fille is special like (to pick some movies) Top Hat, Singing in the Rain, Casablanca, The Big Sleep are special. Fille always works.

Well said. Sadly ever since the comments from their former marketing chief (and their former Chairman) about reducing regular attendance I have suspected the opposite is probably the case. They don’t want to reward a regular and loyal audience, they want those will-o-the-wisps insisted on by a Maoist Arts Council: “new audiences”. Surely the simplest, most reliable and cost-effective way of attracting “new audience” members is to incentivise the regulars to bring them in. But what do I know.

I am privately aware of some tensions within the RB team on this show. Which is no reason not to say what needs to change, just a clue if some people are less than open or forthcoming in their replies to us. Within living memory the ROH mounted a production of the opera Tristan with a wall across the stage. Someone miscalculated with the result that a significant proportion of the audience couldn‘t see the show. Attempts were made to push the wall out of the way and in the end the seat prices on one side of the auditorium were reduced. You couldn‘t make it up.

Some people on the Forum have reported success when writing to the boss, Alex Beard. But the ROH itself encourages people to contact Customerservices@roh.org.uk (which has worked for me and others on here - I understand that Forum members sometimes send extracts from these discussions to this email address)

Or, even longer ago, when the Crush Bar was run by two of the fastest, funniest, most professional barmen in London. Immortalised in The House, if they recognised you heading their way, they would have your drink for you by the time you reached the bar. Or the delightful coat check boy who was perhaps the last voice we heard before the ROH stopped for redevelopment, ending the grand closing gala with an impassioned impromptu speech from a box about how the staff had been treated disgracefully. To coin a phrase, one just can’t get the staff. Or at least not staff like that.

Exactly? Ok I will try to be exact, but that will take a bit of explaining. More quietly and less theatrically, for a start (people looked round at us, as if I had asked something unconscionable - it was in fact a seemingly simple question about the arrangement of the tables in the amphitheatre bar) Also I was brought up not to point, as this is rude. Also there seemed to be some kind of implication of a level of assumed intimacy which one might not think appropriate between a “customer” and a member of staff, at least not at the Royal Opera House (I must be several decades older than this chap). However I would probably not have bothered to note his undignified form of address (just as cheeky when I later checked with him if he had in fact obtained the information) had he actually done his job. He didn’t. I never got an answer. My point - which if you read the rest of my post you will find is spelled out - is that there is a difference between doing a job and playing at it. And the current front of house culture seems not to be what it was.

Pre-Covid, years ago, I sent a letter of complaint to the then front of house team at ROH about thoughtlessly noisy footwear worn by some ushers. I received a decent reply. It seemed that action would follow. However since then we had the great close down, a lot of staff moved on and it seems the senior team is now different. I notice that the ushers are something of a different breed (eg the girl who lied about a supposed ROH relaxed “policy” re underage toddlers, as reported on the Forum; the chap I asked a simple question of last week regarding the amphitheatre bar who went full John Inman on me, pointing and squealing “I’ll get right back to YOU!”, which of course he didn’t). Others have noticed here that there is a chatty spirit of camaraderie between front of house staff, which would be good if it helped them do their jobs but (as others have written) one senses they sometimes care less about us and more about their jolly times at work. In other words, noisy shoes are not the only problem front of house but of course silent footwear should be a basic requirement for auditorium work during performances. I suggest people write in and identify any culprits.

In terms of educating audiences in how to behave, what do we think of how this is done in Manitoba, Canada? Here is their young people’s study guide to the opera Turandot: https://mbopera.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Turandot-Study-Guide.pdf And here, for the purposes of comment and review, is a small section extracted from the 37-page document: Audience etiquette The following will help you (and those around you) enjoy the experience of a night at the opera: • Dress to be comfortable. Many people enjoy dressing up in formal attire, but this is optional and people attend the opera wearing all varieties of clothing. • Arrive on time. Latecomers disturb the singers and others in the audience. Latecomers will only be seated at suitable breaks - often not until intermission. • Find your seat with the help of your teacher or an usher and remember to thank them. • Remove your hat. This is customary and is respectful to the artists and to people sitting behind you. • Turn off, tune in. Switch off all electronic devices including cell phones, smart phones, iPods, pagers, and digital watch alarms. • Leave your camera at home and do not use the camera function on your phone during a performance. This can be very disturbing to the artists and audience members. • Find the “EXIT” signs. Look for the illuminated signs over the doors. You always want to know where the nearest emergency exit is in a theatre. • If you think you might need a breath mint or cough drop, unwrap it before the performance. • Settle in and get comfortable before the performance begins. Read your program. This tells you what performance you’re about to see, who created it, and who’s performing in it. You might like to read a synopsis of the opera before it begins. • Clap as the lights are dimmed and the conductor appears and bows to the audience. Watch as the conductor then turns to the orchestra and takes up his or her baton to signal the beginning of the opera. • Listen to the prelude or overture before the curtain rises. It is part of the performance and an opportunity to identify common musical themes that may reoccur during the opera. • Save all conversations, eating, drinking, and chewing gum, for the intermission. Talking and eating can be disruptive to other audience members and distracts from your ability to be absorbed by the show. The audience is critical to the success of the show – without you, there can be no performance. • Sit still. Only whisper when it is absolutely necessary, as a whisper is heard all over the theatre, and NEVER stand during the performance, except in the case of an emergency. • Read the English translations projected above the stage. • Feel free to laugh when something is funny – this is a performance and you are expected to respond! • Listen for subtleties in the music. The tempo, volume and complexity of the music and singing often depict the “feeling” or “sense” of the action or character. • Notice repeated words or phrases; they are usually significant. • Applaud (or shout Bravo!) at the end of an aria or chorus piece to show your enjoyment of it. The end of a piece can be identified by a pause in the music. * Finally, have fun and enjoy the show!

Anybody heard any of this free podcast documentary series yet (interestingly filed as True Crime)? Here is the online description: In every ballet studio, there is a wall of mirrors. It reflects the people within. They’re part of a closed, elite group that asks for sacrifice and devotion from its members. This insular community produces iconic artists. It’s founded on a strict power structure, often with one man at the top. By tracing the origins of this unusual lifestyle, starting with the legacy of choreographer George Balanchine and the intimate stories of young dancers, we expose the beauty of an artform and the complexity of ballet culture. Short trailer here: https://omny.fm/shows/the-turning-the-sisters-who-left/introducing-the-turning-room-of-mirrors-dated-trai

Saw a rather surprising giant poster driving out of London today. It was advertising a show at the Coliseum (which of course is owned and managed by the ENO) playing this coming autumn and I thought I’d post the link here, in case this is news to anyone here: https://londoncoliseum.org/whats-on/the-mongol-khan/

Just in case people are interested in comparing, here (from another thread) is a near contemporary of Ashton’s Cinderella, set to the same music and filmed in 1960: